Speakers

Introduction to Lab on a Chip for Medical Application

Jaesool Shim

Yeungnam University

Nov. 30 14:10~14:40

Abstract

As the study of a human body or an organism is conducted in the field of proteomics, it is seen that an understanding of proteins is necessary prior to any particular study. However, the task of studying proteins is a huge challenge because of the large number of proteins. In a human body, an estimated 100,000 different protein molecules are made up of a chain of different combinations of twenty amino acids. Although proteins are very diverse, they differ by size, shape, charge and weight and so on. These characteristics allow us to isolate and/or separate from each other by using special techniques.

There are many methods on which protein separation is run based on the above properties. Among these separation techniques, electrophoresis is a widely used technique in an aspect of its high resolution and applicability to a broad range of applications from single molecules to macro molecules or even living cells. Electrophoresis is a technique which uses the phenomena of electrophoretic transport. This electrophoretic transport is well defined as the movement of charged solutes in response to an electric field placed across a buffer electrolyte. Recently, microscale electrophoretic analyses such as Zone Electrophoreisis (ZE), Isoelectric Focusing (IEF) and Isotachophoresis (ITP) have been significantly used due to its shorter processing time, high resolution, low reagent consumption and overall cost-effectiveness.

In this talk, as a micro scale application in lab on a chip, a principle of electrophoresis is mainly represented and mathematical and computational models are shortly introduced for protein separations. In addition, for medical and naval applications, a different lab on a chip with cells and high throughput screening technology in tissue engineering is briefly introduced in the presentation.